Palynologic and plant-compression-bearing coal and shale deposits in Tulsa County (northeast Oklahoma) contain floristic evidence for separating the Desmoinesian and Missourian Series at the base of the Checkerboard sandstone (upper Seminole Sandstone). Three coal seams, Dawson (below), Seminole, and Checkerboard, were formerly placed in the Missourian Series. The two lower seams and their associated shales and sandstones are here removed to the Desmoinesian Series. Dawson coals contain approximately 42% Thymospora pseudothiessenii spores and 17% those of Lycospora sp., whereas the Seminole coals contain none of the former and only 1% of the latter. Sphenopsid spores increase from 4% in the Dawson to 25% in the Seminole. Filicineae and Pteridospermae palynomorphs are 65% n the Dawson and 37% in the Seminole. More abundant in the Seminole are the genera Endosporites, Calamospora, Triquitrites, and Laevigatosporites. Checkerboard coals and shales contain the Missourian genera Centonites, Trivolites, Plicatisporites, and Tuberculatosporites. Compression floras associated with the Dawson and Seminole coals contain only 9 known species of which Calamites suckowii, Annularia stellata, Pecopteris pseudovestita(?), Alethopteris serlii, and Neuropteris scheuchzerii are common. The Checkerboard shales contain possibly 29 species. The brachiopod, Mesolobus mesolobus, a Desmoinesian Series invertebrate, is present in shale above the Dawson coal, giving further support to the removal of that unit from the Missourian to the Desmoinesian Series.

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